LAMB OF GOD

Groove Metal • United States

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Lamb of God is an American groove metal band, originally formed under the name Burn the Priest.

The roots of Lamb of God were planted in the year 1990, when Mark Morton, Chris Adler and John Campbell were bros at Virginia Commonwealth University. The trio began playing at Adler's house in Richmond weathering chilly conditions. "There was no heat in the house," recalls Campbell. "We would hang around the kerosene heaters, get really drunk and write metal songs. Fumes and Black Label beer were definitely what fueled our early days."

After graduation, Morton moved to Chicago to pursue a master's degree, but the band continued. A new guitarist, Abe Spear, replaced Morton as the band retired its instrumental sound and added Randy Blythe on vocals.

The quartet, known then as Burn the Priest, became a fixture in the tightly-knit Richmond music scene. To compete with the high-level of musicianship displayedread more...

LAMB OF GOD Reviews

Although LAMB OF GOD is often listed as thrash metal (which it is to a certain extent), it is to my ears a hybrid of the thrashier side of metal in the groove metal and metalcore arena. This music is absolutely relentless with nothing even close to a ballad making its appearance on this release. This is the third release (counting their debut under the name BURN THE PRIEST) and a huge jump in quality over the previous ones. Here they have honed their sound into a metal powerhouse that satisfies my headbanging needs time and time again. I lost my original copy in a flood and have just picked up the newly released 10th anniversary edition that is remastered complete with bonus tracks and accompanying DVD.

This was my first album by LAMB OF GOD and I have to say that it is still my favorite. The compositions are not of the simple sort as they would drift towards with later releases. There is an energetic fury here that is unequaled on their other albums and the tracks have a complexity that gets watered down on subsequent releases. The album was produced by the band itself and also by Devin Townsend. It has a nice modern metal luster to it that offers a crisp clean production that still sounds like filthy dirty metal. For me this is a satisfying release. It is not as melodic and catchy like other groove thrash acts such as Pantera but I think is a good thing as it has an aggressive edge that comes from the incessant frenetic energy that it delivers. If you want an absolutely no-compromise metal album that is turned up to 11 for its entirety and never takes a break for a breather (with the exception of the short intro on “Vigil”), then you will love this album.

Resolution is the Virginian Metal band Lamb Of God’s seventh official Studio Album. It was released in 2012 and the production saw involvement from both Machine, who handled their Sacrament and Ashes Of The Wake albums as well Josh Wilbur who helmed 2009’s Wrath album, consequently the whole record sounds amazing and tracks flow remarkably well together. As you would expect from Lamb Of God themselves, there are a lot of explosive and loud tracks that are for the most part very heavy and very fast, with a lot of groove coming through into the overall sound and an impressive standard of musicianship from everyone involved.

If you enjoyed the band’s previous two albums in particular, then Resolution is certain to keep you entertained through its fifty-six minute duration, even if the band do seem to suggest otherwise in interviews. Singer Randy Blythe’s vocals are as savage as ever at times yet more varied than on the band’s earliest works; Mark Morten’s lead guitar sound is still fantastically musical where other players may have been tempted just to be noisy and of course the riffs and beats from the rest of the band give you exactly what you would want from a new Lamb Of God Album.

That is not to say that Resolution is just Lamb Of God by numbers however; kicking off with a big and doomy Sabbath inspired opener ‘Straight For The Sun’ and ending with a track called ‘King Me’ which features both female vocals and and orchestra and that also mixes in Trendkill era Pantera sounds with the normal Lamb Of God sound, you simply can’t seriously accuse the band of lacking variety.

Other notable moments include the almost melodic ‘Insurection’ as well as the brief semi-acoustic number ‘Barbarosa’ and ‘The Number Six’ which doesn’t sound like anything on the recent couple of Lamb Of God records.

There are one or two moments towards the start of the album where you can briefly think “I’ve heard that riff before” such as in ‘Ghost Walking,’ which evokes the spirit of the fan-favourite track ‘Redneck,’ but thankfully those moments are relatively few and ultimately form a very small part of the overall experience.

Overall, Resolution is a strong and immensely enjoyable Lamb Of God album that keeps enough of what makes the band enjoyable in the first place to keep fans happy and adds enough twists and turns to the formula to keep things fresh and interesting even if it takes you a few listens to fully get your head around, it is really easy to imagine this album being well represented in the live environment for years to come.

I recommend the album a lot and if you can, try and pick up the special edition version which contains a twelve track live disc from the Wrath Tour and features many of the bands most enduring tracks making it the perfect album for prospective fans to get into the band with.

New American Gospel is Lamb Of God's first full length studio album. The album is undeniably important to the Lamb of God story, with the band still playing material from it to this day. For the new fan however, this album may come as a bit of a shock.

If you have ever heard Soul Of A New Machine, In This Present Darkness or Call Of The Mastodon you will know what to expect, a raw and noisy release of material that in some ways resembles the sound the band would become famous for and in some ways most certainly does not.

The production is very raw with a clicky and unpleasant bass drum sound, thin tinny guitars and Randy's vocals aren't layered in the way they would be on all of their later albums.

Randy's vocals indeed are not only produced differently, but are different in of themselves. The low barking growl that fans expect from Randy is absent and this album has full on death growls or high pitched screams instead, not necessarily a bad thing but there is little resemblance to the style he uses so well nowadays.

Listeners will be interested to hear the various influences that no longer feature in the band's style, the stray Grindcore riffs or Black Metal moments that fit so well here but would be out of place on Sacrament or Wrath.

Differences in style aside, there is a lot of high quality metal music on the album, `Pariah,' `Terror and Hubris in the House of Frank Pollard,' and perennial show closer `Black Label,' all stand the test of time and will impress listeners.

New American Gospel belongs in every Lamb of God collection, both for its historical value and for its own musical value.

***Newer editions come with the Bonus track `Nippon,' as well as some (even rawer) demo versions of album tracks and a very interesting set of linear notes describing how they slept in vans outside the studio, wrote the lyrics minutes before singing them and the pressure they band were under to get everything done in time.***

As The Palaces Burn is Lamb Of God's second full length studio album. The album is hugely important to the Lamb of God story, spawning crowd favorites `Ruin,' `Vigil,' and the title track. From start to finish there are no weak tracks and every Lamb of God member puts in a top notch performance.

This is the album were the Lamb of God sound is properly established, where the lyrical style is properly established and where Randy's Vocals sound right for the first time on this release, with his trademark half Death Growl half metalcore bark making up the majority of the vocal contributions to this album. With Devon Townsend in the Engineer's and Producer's chairs The Lamb of God sound was finally captured on an album. The production is a huge step up from their debut but is still a little raw and noisy by modern standards.

The album contains a lot of excellent songs with `11th Hour,' `Purified,' and `In Defense of Our Good Name,' standing out in particular. Guest guitar contributions from Chris Poland on `Purified,' are welcome and don't feel out of place whatsoever.

The only downside with the album is that the material is very difficult to become familiar with, and while you will enjoy and be impressed by the technical and heavy music its not the kind of thing you'll have stuck in your head after your first listen.

If you like Lamb of God then you simply have to get As The Palaces Burn, it's a Grower but be persistent, its worth it.

Ashes Of The Wake is Lamb Of God's Third full length studio album. The album is decidedly more polished and cleaner than its predecessors, with producer Machine (that's his name) taking the helm for the first time and really driving for clarity in a way previously unheard of on a Lamb Of God album.

Apart from the new cleaner production, the first thing you'll notice about Ashes is the songwriting, Lamb Of God hit onto the perfect formula for writing catchy singles and crowd pleasing songs that instantly feel familiar, that have hooks and that most importantly are highly memorable.

While the earlier material was awesome, it was harder to familiarize yourself with and songs would take a great many listens before you understood how they worked or remembered what came next, with Ashes everything just clicks. The combination of a less brash production and more accessible songs may be unpalatable to some fans of the earlier output but its hard to deny the sheer quality of music.

The musicianship is of the highest standard, head and shoulders above many of their peers both technically and creatively each Lamb of God member seems handpicked because he was the best in his field.

The album is chocked full of career highlights from the excellent politically fused `One Gun,' or the introspective `What I've Become,' to singles `Now You've Got Something To Die For,' and `Laid To Rest,' nothing is ever short of excellent.

Chris Poland once again returns with guest guitar contributions are once again welcome and don't feel out of place whatsoever on the fantastic instrumental title track.

Ashes Of The Wake may have a more commercial production but its hard to complain when the music is this good.

LAMB OF GOD Movies Reviews

Walk With Me In Hell is a fantastic DVD for fans of Lamb Of God, full of honest and informative interviews, storming live performances and footage from all around the world.

The DVD features four and a half hours of content; including The main feature, the 117 minute documentary `Walk With Me In Hell ,' as well as six entire live songs from various tours that were featured in the documentary. The Second disc features the fantastic 77 minute `Making of The Sacrament,' documentary,' and an entire 40 minute Set from Download and lastly the music video for Redneck.

The main documentary is brilliant, following the band from just having finished recording their fantastic Sacrament album and embarking on a world tour full of interesting encounters, mishaps and mild adventures. Interviews unravel a tale of ups and downs, of bad luck and of increasing success and really give you an idea of what life is like for a touring metal band. From adjusting to foreign food, being cut of from your family and living in a cramped bus with band and crew members for months on end to photo shoots merch signing sessions and radio interview obligations.

The band are both really candid and entertaining, giving honest impressions of situations and not being afraid to look bad, while also cracking many jokes or playing a few childish pranks that never fail to raise a few laughs. Where some band DVDs may over emphasize the comedy aspects, Walk With Me In Hell is very tasteful and has the balance just right. The whole documentary is full of Lamb of God music, both recorded versions playing over footage of busses or set ups, and snippets of excellently shot concert footage that can last up to a minute or two.

Redneck, Again We Rise, Walk With Me in Hell, Now You've Got Something To Die For, Blacken The Cursed Sun, and Pathetic can be seen in full from these various performances featured in the documentary, a nice way to augment Killadelphia without repeating it.

`Making of The Sacrament,' documentary is of the same very high standard, and features a lot of the decision making processes, actual song writing and much footage of practicing and perfecting songs that would eventually make up the album. The band also talk a lot about their place in the world of metal, their music and how each album differs from the last, very interesting stuff for a fan to watch.

The Download set is a real highlight here, the excellent audio and visual quality and extremely energetic performance by the band make for an amazing show. The track list is: Laid To Rest, Again We Rise, Walk With Me in Hell, Pathetic, Now You've Got Something To Die For, Blacken The Cursed Sun, Redneck, and Black Label.

Overall this DVD is highly recommended to fans of the band, featuring tones of content, really interesting documentaries and very well shot, edited and performed live material focusing heavily on The Sacrament album so as not to just repeat the band's previous two DVDs.

Killadelphia is a fantastic DVD that captures Lamb Of God in 2005 just as they were really breaking into the big time, with a mixture of documentary segments and a sixteen track concert that has a total playtime of almost two hours.

The concert is of very high quality, the band deliver music from New American Gospel in a clear and professional way and give tracks from Ashes of the Wake an energy and rawness that improves them similarly. The band are brilliant performers and know how to command an audiences attention, when to play up to the crowd and also crucially when not to, in order to preserve the spirit of the written songs.

Randy is the type of singer who you may expect might not be able to pull it off live, given the intensity, speed and complexity of what he delivers on record; but in reality his live performances are astounding, if anything better than on record.

Performance is only one quality on which a live concert stands or falls, and thankfully a very strong performance is not the only thing which Killadelphia has to offer, the sound is terrific, with a very clear drum and vocal sound, heavy guitar tones and a good clear mix which gives each instrument a fair chance to shine without sacrificing much in the way of heaviness.

Furthermore, the camera work, direction and editing, in addition to the lighting and stage show are excellent bringing a real excitement to the video without having to resort to cheesy wipes or frequent quick cuts like other concert DVDs sometimes do, but which only ever give the illusion of energy.

On top of all this, the track list is excellent with tracks from each of the band's early albums together and performed to the highest quality. Then as if the concert wasn't interesting enough (and there is an option to play only the concert, plus a CD copy of the concert for added value) you get a really candid and informative set of documentary segments which are of the same tone as those on the band's Walk With Me in Hell DVD, and include the infamous fist fight which fans always seem to love.

Overall, Killadelphia is a brilliant DVD, honestly one of the best metal DVDs on the market and an absolute must buy for Lamb Of God fans.